Street children given a new life     Down … but thanks to Kids Company, not out Picture posed by model   JULY 18, 2007     WITH gang culture tightening its terrifying grip on Britain, one woman is leading the fight back. Camila Batmanghelidjh founded Kids Company in 1996 and helps thousands of vulnerable youngsters overcome abuse, violence and the deadly drugs trade to become model citizens. Here, two of her young charges tell their shocking stories as we profile the amazing work done by the charity. Antoine’s story HARDCORE hoodie Antoine is 19 and has spent most of his life on the streets. He has sold drugs and worked as a male prostitute to survive. When you read what the young Londoner – now studying to be a barrister – has endured, you may understand why: When I was a baby, my mum had a mental breakdown and started drinking heavily. Soon she was using crack. During the night, people looking for my mum would often break into our house. They would come into my bedroom and beat up family members. I was sexually abused at the age of four because of this open house environment. When I was eight my mum had started on heroin and I spent my time living with different family members. Back home there would always be prostitutes and different men in the house and it wasn’t safe. When mum had a binge period I wouldn’t have any clothes or food and there was a lot of shame. A neighbour used to give me chips to eat — that was all I had. Social services came to see us but did nothing. I was roaming the streets by the age of 11 and by 14 I had turned my first trick, prostituting. Prostitution for drugs or food is rife among the kids I grew up with and their parents. I would perform oral sex for £20 and full sex for £40. I got involved in drugs at 16. I knew I was gay by that time and a boyfriend introduced me to it. Gang wars are all about white powder (cocaine), brown powder(heroin) and rock (crack). It means money, survival, credibility and a stepping stone to a better life. If I could make £300-a-day carrying drugs, I would do it. Children as young as nine and ten are being given drugs to carry across boroughs in London. And they are being told they will be shot if they don’t do it. I started with pills, GHB, poppers, glue, weed and cocaine. I never touched crack because of my mum’s experiences. When I was having sex with people for money, the drugs helped me to blank things out. My life was filled with guilt, pain and fear — I was very aggressive. Finally, I knew I had to find a way out. I began going to a day centre in Kings Cross, London, set up for young sex workers, and joined a drama group. I started acting with David Harewood, who starred in Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio. I was playing myself in a production in June last year and Camila was in the audience. She came up to me afterwards and said that even if it took all her life she would help me reach my full potential. Camila and her team have turned my life around. I began attending therapy sessions and I was introduced to a barrister, who became my mentor. I’m currently studying law and I have offers to go to college.” Chelsea’s story CHELSEA, 17, started selling crack when she was 11 but with the help of tuition from Kids Co is now due to take her GCSEs. She says: I grew up in Brixton with my mum. My dad was in jail for robbery. When he came out he started smoking crack. When I was 11 the problems got worse — it was more mental abuse than physical and I became mute for a whole year. I started getting into what I call a “family” and others call a gang. I would stay with them and we’d go out and make money together. I sold crack from the age of 11. The first person who gave me something to sell was my dad. He also gave me a gun and told me to hide it. I know ten-year-olds who are standing on the block right now with a gun and a kilo of crack on their waist. That’s what it’s coming to. Society is neglecting to see when parents are failing and no one is intervening. Bad stuff is being written about shootings and hooded thugs but it’s been getting worse for years. It’s not petty crime, it’s serious business. When I came to Kids Co I could get meals and change in my pocket to buy food — I didn’t have to sell drugs any more. I’m taking my GCSEs now. Kids Company has become my new family.

Dedicated Camila will give her all to save young lives Saviour … Antoine with Kids Company founder Camila Picture: ARTHUR EDWARDS SHARON HENDRY Reports from the Kids Co centre in Camberwell, South London CHILDREN scream and run for cover as the sound of gunfire fills the air. Sirens wail and armed police surround the building. The room I am sitting in is sealed off and I am told to stay where I am or risk a rogue bullet ricocheting into my head. This is not a dispatch from a Somalian border town or an unstable Iraqi enclave. Incredibly, this is a residential street in South East London on a Friday afternoon. A war is breaking out in the capital and this week I found myself on the front line. Kids Company is the target. But founder Camila Batmanghelidjh says it is not the first time her safe haven has come under siege. The project provides food, shelter, therapy and education for children, including gang members caught up in the drugs business. Dealers rely on child couriers to help ply their trade and do not take kindly to attempts by Camila’s team to prise them away. Today, one has come back to reclaim his young charge. Iranian-born Camila, 43, likens violent gang members to suicide bombers in that their lives are so bleak they have nothing to fear from death. She says knife and gun bans do not work — new weapons will merely be found. “Many children of violence have experienced such extreme violence themselves growing up,” she continues. “The children I speak to recall being stripped and beaten, watching their step-father smash their mother’s skull — and many are the children of drug addicts who never experience any decent family life. “They are attracted to the father-like spell that drug dealers cast over them, offering food, money, firearms, even LOVE, in exchange for drug-running. “They experience a sense of power and enjoy being perpetrators of violence after spending so long as the victim. If you are ever the victim of a stranger attack by one of these children, the worst thing you can do is beg for survival. “In your begging they will see the helpless child they once were and hate themselves — in turn they will probably kill you.” So what is the solution to the terror increasingly engulfing Britain’s streets? “You can’t punish parents into being good parents,” says Camila. “You have to address the social care structures that don’t step in robustly enough when parents are struggling. “Social services is currently under-funded and there is a huge discrepancy between children referred and those actually on the at-risk register. We need to tackle this with better-funded mental health support, social services and activities.” Running Camila’s centre, which cares for some 500 exceptionally vulnerable children 52 weeks a year, costs £3million annually. Their work, using volunteers and trainees, to deliver support in schools for a further 10,000 less-challenged children costs £1.2million. Camila says: “We have to raise £4.5million a year, and we received this money from 4,700 donors in 2006. “But we cannot continue begging for resources and money for such an urgent front-line service which should be delivered by the Government. “The Treasury part-funded Kids Company for the last three years, allowing us to become a really good service. The grant runs out in March 2008 — we need to know, what next?” s.hendry@the-sun.co.uk Kids Co relies on charitable donations to continue helping children. If you want to help, contact them at: info@kidsco.org.uk or visit kidsco.org.uk.

 

Toybox: Saving Street Children in Latin America

The Christian charity Toybox is working hard in Latin America to bring hope to street children in Bolivia and Guatemala.

Toybox has launched a new project called Guardian Angels to bring hope to street children in Oruro, Bolivia, where there is currently no one working to help these children.

The Christian charity is committed to bringing hope to some of the world’s most disadvantaged children and building a world where there are no more street children. It works principally in Latin America where the needs are great and the challenge is huge.

"There is no protection or help for children on the streets in Oruro," says Claudia from Toy Box’s partner Red Viva team in Cochabamba. Red Viva is the Latin American branch of the Oxford-based Viva Network, a Christian charity committed to providing care for vulnerable and neglected children.

It’s a hard life for street children in Bolivia. They lack adequate shelter, are exposed to drugs, and face hunger and ill-health daily. Most have been abused, physically, sexually or both.

"The local government and people have asked Toybox and Red Viva to be part of a new city wide work with street children,” says Claudia.

“This is a great plan and there is an opportunity to make a difference immediately. The people there are praying and waiting to see if Toybox will help."

Silvia, leader of El Castillo, Toybox’s partner in Guatemala, says, "We are more shocked and afraid for the children than ever. There is an urgent need to protect them as the level of danger they face is increasing every day."

Toybox estimates that it will cost around £116 towards each child saved from the streets through Guardian Angels projects in Oruro and Guatemala this year.

Andy Stockbridge, Toybox Chief Executive, has just returned from visiting the team in Oruro. He comments, "Oruro is a poor city with significant need. But the local people together, church, projects, local authorities have a real heart and a genuine plan to work with children who find themselves on the street or working on the street."

 

Uganda: Beggars, Street Children a Burden in the City
The Monitor (Kampala)

COLUMN
19 July 2007
Posted to the web 18 July 2007

Andrew Nkurunziza

Over the years the number of beggars and street children on Kampala streets has grown tremendously.

Most of these unprivileged people come from upcountry in hope of better life in the city but end up on the streets.

The beggars and street children are common on Kampala Road, the Constitution Square, the traffic lights in Wandegeya and Shoprite Super and near Sheraton Hotel.

They are mainly children aged 3-18, disabled and surprisingly able bodied adults. There are physically handicapped beggars and those afflicted by leprosy.

Others are mothers who strategically place their children to beg as they monitor from a far. The other group is of young boys and girls aged 10-15. These are lone rangers commonly referred to as street children and to compliment begging, they engage in petty theft.

However, it’s rare to find able bodied males on the streets begging. Why do these people come to the streets?

Most of the beggars come to town to look for a better life or simply for curiosity and quest for adventure.

They believe Kampala is paradise on earth where everything comes easy and free. However, when these people reach the city, they find the opposite of what they expected and with their expectations dashed, they end up on the streets.

The disabled feel sympathetic persons can take pity on them and dole a little money their way. Many of the street children are either orphans or have run away from home mainly because they are mistreated by step mothers. Some girls run away from home because of unwanted pregnancies.

This lifestyle, if one may call it so, has adverse effects. The children are deprived of their rights and live a traumatised life and this may affect them later in life.

They are also exposed to diseases like scabies and Aids, especially among the adolescents. The girls are even raped and give birth to children who surely will also be street children, thereby perpetuating the cycle of street life.

The disabled beggars have also borne the brunt of recent demonstrations in the city. They have been trampled upon by the agitators and tear gassed as police disperses demos.

Because of the harsh life, the children resort to drugs such as marijuana, mairungi and inhale fuel fumes as a coping mechanism to extinguish hunger.

The beggars are also susceptible to accidents. At the Wandegeya traffic lights, many compete with vehicles as they scramble for handouts from motorists. So what must be done to check this phenomenon? The authorities should resettle these people where they can be made productive through engaging in income generating activities.

These people can do something for themselves; disability is not inability. The government should increase funding to Naguru Remand Home where juvenile delinquency cases can be handled better and the street youth rehabilitated.

There is need to enforce laws that would make streets begging illegal although I am aware there will be challenges to implementing this law.

With the run up to Chogm, the City Council has a big task to ensure Kampala reflects a good image of the country.

LEBANON: Government could do more to tackle child labour

Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN

The Social Affairs Ministry has pledged US$200,000 to the Home of Hope, but Lebanon’s lengthy political crisis has crippled the government and hugely delayed the delivery of much-needed cash

BEIRUT, 18 July 2007 (IRIN) - Abdullah lives like no eight year-old-boy should. Two years ago, the youngster from Raqqa, a town in the north of Syria on the banks of the River Euphrates, travelled to Lebanon with his three brothers, looking for work.

Today, Abdullah lives with around 20 other workers in a ramshackle encampment on a patch of wasteland in Lailaki, a poor suburb of south Beirut.

By night, the boy picks through the city’s rubbish, hoping to find objects of value.

By day, instead of going to school, Abdullah sorts through his discoveries with his “boss”, an aggressive middle-aged woman who claims to own the camp and who, Abdullah says, beats the children if they do not make her enough money.

A few hours sleep in a filthy, cramped tent with no heat or running water and a bowl of rice is his reward.

“My family sent me here to work and now I haven’t seen them for so long,” said Abdullah, his hands rough from manual labour.

Photo: Hamza Haj Hassan/IRIN

"I do hope for a better life. But I’m stuck here. Even if I could leave I would be lost."

Abdullah, 6

It is illegal for children under the age of 14 to work in Lebanon, as it is for unsupervised children to beg or sell on the streets. Yet the Ministry of Social Affairs estimates that there are around 100,000 under-14s doing manual labour in the country, while some 20,000 Lebanese children live in alternative care because their families are too poor to support them.

Street children, most of whom are from neighbouring Arab countries and so cannot avail of public services, number from 3-5,000, according to estimates by local activists.

“I do hope for a better life,” said Abdullah, who was dirty and appeared malnourished and in need of medical attention. “But I’m stuck here. Even if I could leave I would be lost.”

Nichole Ireland, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF), said: “Living in these conditions is a violation of a child’s rights. Children have a right to go to school, to be cared for and to live in safe and healthy conditions.”

“No-one out there actively searching out street kids”

Though the social affairs ministry and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) run projects to protect and rehabilitate street children or those forced into labour, Lebanon lacks a dedicated body to crack down on such abuses, meaning children must be arrested by the regular police before they can enter the social services network.

“There’s no-one out there actively searching out street kids,” John Eter, director of the Home of Hope orphanage in Kahale, on the mountains east of Beirut, told IRIN.

Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN

"Ziad got me selling marijuana, then cocaine and heroin. I started smoking marijuana and when I was stoned Ziad used to sell me to men for sex."

Alaa Abdel Karim al-Bouz, 21, is the oldest resident in the Home of Hope orphanage. Read his story…

“We have been suggesting this to the government for four years. Children should get the highest priority in times of crisis. But with all the troubles happening, it seems the security forces are not ready for reform.”

Lebanon is locked in an eight-month old political standoff between the government and the Hezbollah-led opposition that resigned from the cabinet, while in the north the army continues its struggle to defeat Fatah al-Islam militants holed up in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.

Eter estimated Lebanon has as many as 5,000 street children, 80 percent of them foreigners mainly from Syria, Jordan, Iraq or the Palestinian territories, who carry no identification papers and who therefore cannot attend state school and can be arrested any time.

Activists say the government has resisted calls to give official IDs to street children without papers because they fear it would encourage more parents to abandon their children in Lebanon.

Orphanage lacks funds

Eter opened the Home of Hope orphanage, run through contributions to the Lebanese Evangelical Society (LES), in 1999.

The centre has accommodation for up to 150 boys and girls of any age - usually up to 18 - who sleep in dormitories, take three meals a day, play sports and receive schooling and counseling, including check-ups by a psychologist.

“These children are brought up in homes where it is normal for them to be beaten or even raped. Some have advanced drug addiction. We have a psychologist always here, but the best therapy for kids is other kids,” said Eter.

However, the Home of Hope is facing a drastic funding crisis. Eter said that since 2004 the government had reduced its support to the centre by 80 percent, meaning the budget of around US$500,000 has shrunk to around $30,000, just enough to feed and cloth the 64 children currently resident.

Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN

Since 1999, the Lebanese Evangelical Society (LES) has run an orphanage in Kahale, in the mountains east of Beirut, which has been a place of sanctuary for hundreds of abandoned street children

Two thirds of the teaching and support staff have already been laid off, with the remainder receiving letters announcing their dismissal by the end of August, when Eter said the centre would have to close in the absence of extra funds.

“I have made many appeals for money from the British and French embassies and from the European Union and USAID [US Agency for International Development], but they are not interested because the kids are not Lebanese. There is money for political activities but not for humanitarian,” said Eter.

Minister of Social Affairs Naila Mouawad, who herself runs a foundation which helps working children in Tripoli, north Lebanon, told IRIN that the Home of Hope had been awarded $200,000 from the government this year, but that payment had been severely delayed by the ongoing political deadlock.

Competition gives note of hope to street kids

City News - Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Five hundred street children from Greater Jakarta are taking part in a music workshop as part of a contest that could see them win a recording contract.

Veteran musician Embi C. Noor, a jury member, said Monday about 1,300 children from 15 shelters registered for the contest.

During the first round of the contest last month, all of the children had a chance to sing and play an instrument.

Jury members selected the best 500 to move on to the next stage of the contest.

Embi said the children were selected based on musical skill, creativity, performance and uniqueness.

"Five hundreds of them moved on to the next step," he said.

The contestants are now taking part in a three-day workshop that started Monday. Fifty will be selected to attend another workshop that will last for a week and involve top musicians Dwiki Dharmawan and Franky Sahilatua.

"We will then pick the best three to do a recording with Sony," Embi said.

The event is being sponsored by Nokia, Sony BMG and Plan Indonesia, an international non-governmental organization focusing on children’s welfare.

Although there are numerous non-governmental organizations working with street children here, they continue to be a marginalized community that rarely receives attention from the government. One of the main ways for these children to earn the money necessary to survive is by working as a street musician.

While street children are often viewed with a wary eye by people who see them as little better than criminals, the children themselves are more likely to become victims of violence on the streets.

There are no official statistics on the number of street children in Greater Jakarta.

This contest will give a few of the children rare access to proper musical instruments and recording professionals. Organizers hope this will help the children get off the street and begin building a future.

Contest organizers have provided shelters with musical instruments, to give the children a chance to rehearse.

"We are trying to help these children who love music, because for them music is a perfect way to express themselves," said Plan Indonesia acting country director Pol DeGreve.

Susilo Adinegoro, the coordinator of Sanggar Akar, one of the shelters, said the contest was a good chance for the children to express themselves and develop their creativity.

"The most important thing is not the recording contract, but more about how the children learn to compete and interact," he said.

Hasan Aulia, general manager of Nokia Indonesia, said the contest might also help the country’s music industry.

"We also want to give an opportunity to the many talented street musicians to perform, and we hope with this contest they can be part of Indonesia’s music industry."

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Russia’s Forgotten Children
The story of Rachael Hughes and Living Hope, an organisation that cares for street children in Vladivostok, Russia. www.livinghope.org.nz